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REWIRING THE WISP: Fig. A: The Glade Wisp Scented
Oil Fragrancer. Fig. B: The cover removed, exposing the
PC board and scent bottle. Fig. C: The power transistor
with its original control trace cut and new control wires
MATERIALS
Glade Wisp Scented Oil Fragrancer There are a
few models; I used the one shown here, not the
one shaped like a bottom-heavy donut or the
more expensive “flameless candle” with the
flickering LED.
Arduino microcontroller board Any type that’s based
on the Atmel ATmega168 chip running at 16MHz
will do; I used an Arduino Nano.
24-gauge hookup wire
Essential oil, ½oz, fragrance of your choice
The possibilities are vast; Google “fragrance oils”
or investigate candle making and soap making
suppliers.
TOOLS
Computer running Arduino software
from
arduino.cc/en/main/software
Sharp X-Acto knife
Soldering iron and solder
Wire cutters and strippers
Flat-blade screwdriver
Jeweler’s flat-blade screwdriver
or drill and small drill bits
Rubbing alcohol
Glue gun and hot glue
Helping hands tool (optional) with clips and
a magnifying glass
162 Make: Volume
16
E
attached. Fig. D: The hacked Wisp with new control
wires. Fig. E: The Wisp connected to the Arduino
controller on a solderless breadboard.
switch. The cover is held to the base with snap-fit
plastic tabs, so you’ll need to get a bit physical and
sort of “unzip” the tabs toward the switch end
(Figure B). I used a small flat-blade screwdriver.
The base and shell are rather flexible and all the
circuit components are attached loosely, so I don’t
think you can damage the workings unless you slip
and rip out one of the wires that attaches the circuit
board to the piezoelectric atomizer next to it.
Inspect the PC board and locate a black, rectangular component with 3 leads coming out of one
side and 1 big lead on the opposite side. It will probably be marked “3055L.” This is a power MOSFET,
a type of transistor, and it drives a transformer on
the underside of the board, which in turn boosts the
battery voltage up to the level needed to power the
piezoelectric atomizer disc.
The first step in the mod is to use an X-Acto knife
to cut the trace that connects the MOSFET to the
control chip that’s hidden under the big, round blob
of epoxy in the middle of the board.
Severing this connection lets us take over control
and vibrate the disc ourselves. With the blob oriented
above, I severed the trace just to the upper right of
the MOSFET’s big lead (Figure C).
Cut 2 lengths of 24-gauge hookup wire long enough
